Movable Type users looking for something different for their personal blog will love this template set. The design features a notebook look on a striking and vibrant background. "Personal" elements include hand-written search, headings and comment form, and post-it note styled sidebar and date tags.
Notepad Chaos was designed by Evan Eckard for Smashing Magazine, who made it freely available for Wordpress users, and who kindly gave their permission to re-distribute it for Movable Type.
The conversion to Movable Type required quite a bit of template tweaking and so I've packaged it as a plugin for easy installation.
Installation
- Unpack the NotepadChaosTemplateSet archive.
- Copy the contents of NotepadChaosTemplateSet/plugins into /path/to/mt/plugins/
- Copy the contents of NotepadChaosTemplateSet/mt-static/plugins into /path/to/mt/mt-static/plugins/
To create a new blog using this template set, simply select "Notepad-Chaos Template Set" as the template set on the Create Blog page.
To use it on an existing blog, go the Design > Templates screen in Movable Type and click "Refresh Blog Templates" under Actions in the right column. Choose "Apply new template set" and select "Notepad-Chaos Template Set" from the options. Press the "Continue" button and then the "Confirm" button and then republish your site.
To Do
You will need to create an "About" page. Save the page in a folder called about, and name the page index.html. Tag the page @about.
The links in the sidebar need to be created. Edit the sidebar template module and add the website paths and titles for your link list.
Edit the footer template module to add some text that will be appropriate there.
Hello,
this is really a great template!
i installed it on my movable type 4.2.1 installation and tried to create a test blog.
When i try to publish it, i got error messages.
"Veröffentlichungsfehler in Vorlage 'Übersicht': Fehler im Vorlagenbefehl : Kann verwendete Vorlage Modul 'HTML Head' nicht finden "
Some suggestions? Thanks Eismaus
Hi Eismaus,
Your comment for some reason got marked as spam, and since I can't read German, I needed to do some translation.
Publication error in template 'Grid': error in the Templates command: Can module used template 'HTML Head' not find
Did all the modules install correctly? Are you using MT Pro or MT? I have 4.21 installed using Pro and had no errors after creating a test blog.
I "widgetized" it, and yet everytime I add a widget I loose parts of my sidebar - you can see it in action at etsynj.com
any ideas?
Hi Abbie,
This particular site only deals with the modified theme for Movable Type users. I like what you've done with the theme, but your site is powered by WordPress and I can't help you with that.
Thank you very much for bringing this wordpress theme to MT users:P
No problem.
I figured out, that most of my problems are because of a german mt installation.
I made an english testinstallation and now it works at most parts.
I needet to change the date-tab.png to date-tab.gif, else the picture would show.
Also i have some problems with some widgets.
For one, the rss feed is linkt to your site. So is the "Sign in"
And the search fild doesn't work.
My test and playing site: http://www.mausiversum.de/test/
Eismaus
Sorry Eismaus,
Looks like there will be another version after I figure out the bugs. I'll let you know when I've solved the problems.
Thank you so much for your feedback Eismaus, without people like you, it's possible that I wouldn't know about the problems.
I've fixed the rss feeds, the sign-in problem and the search function. The templates have been updated in the download zip.
Rather than reinstall the whole thing, you could probably just updated those changed templates. They are:
Your stylesheet will also need to be updated. I had to change some styling for the search input after changing the code to make it work. I have also updated the link to the date tab, so you might have to rename it to png again. You can use mine, overwrite the one in the mt-static/plugins folder.
http://mt4.juneeonline.com/mt-static/plugins/notepad-chaos/style.css
Please let me know if there's anything else.
Sorry to ask, but have you uploadet your changes? After the download i get the same errors again. Even the "missing" Date-Tab..
I made a new testinstallation, to make sure, no old settings where used, but same problem.
Hi Eismaus, I called the new download v1.1 to easily distinguish it from the previous version. Sorry you're having so many problems. All the problem pages have been updated and the new image is in the images folder.
Everything should work properly. The javascript file has completely changed so perhaps copying and pasting is the way to go. Be sure to rebuild your site, and delete the old install before you upload the new version.
Eismaus, If you want to give me access to your site I'll go in and fix it for you.
You have the new date-tab image showing up, but the code for the sign-in and search hasn't updated as per the new templates.
Also, there's a few lines at the top of the stylesheet that should be deleted. In the 1.1 version I've deleted these lines.
Give me your email address.
I gave you acces and send you an email
Hi Eismaus,
You should be good to go now. Comments are working, feeds working, sign-in working, search working.
I updated your stylesheet using the MT styles.css with full path to the images. Any changes you want to make can be done on the template listing screen.
BTW there seems to be a problem signing in here with TypeKey.. gives an error message when it attempts to redirect back to this site after signing in. Hopefully it's just a temporary issue at their end.
Download is working now.
Hi Louis,
This theme has been modified especially for Movable Type. You can download the wordpress theme from Smashing Magazine.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/20/notepad-chaos-a-free-wordpress-theme/
I can't wait to give a try..Cool!!!
BTW,
Please do check my site too, Mari Ann “Recession Proof” Lisenbe
Thanks!!!
What Can I Do???
Do you have the right javascript form installed? Check that it matches the one that you downloaded. You may need to refresh the mt.js file.
Hi Celine,
The code is available in the download. You'll find the original wordpress code at Smashing Magazines.
Hi Rohit, You're on the wrong track here. This site deals only with Movable Type blogs, not blogger. I have noticed that this theme has been modified for use with Blogger blogs, but it's not me that you need to ask. You need to direct your questions to http://www.bloggerblogtemplates.com/2008/09/notepad-chaos-blogger-template.html
http://blacknwhitepages.blogspot.com/
thanks for sharing the information
I have seen ur site first time and don't know more abt u but I wish to compliment u for ur designing work. ur work is gr8. I am Harendra from Delhi, India, running a small software and website development co. I would like to be in touch with u and love to see ur nice work in future.
thanks and keep it up. :)
Very High-end looking design, and excellent layout!
Are you sure this is free?
Thanks a lot!
Keep up the amazing work
Os widgets serão excluídos Confirme a exclusão dos itens a seguir. Toda a configuração dos itens será perdida.
Hi Dylan,
You've got a lot more happening with your images than mine with the fade in and out, perhaps it's the script causing your problems. Clicking through them slowly gives no problems at all, it's when you click too fast that you end up with a row of images. Maybe you just need to slow down :)
fyi Jim Ramsey has made some nice additions to mid century in the form of auto preview comments. You can search for the movable type mid-century trunk files and look for the latest revisions. Thanks again.
Hello Lilith, You downloaded the template set for use with Blogger, not the one I modified for Movable Type. Looking at your site though, it looks like you've got it sorted. Nice site.
Hi Susanne,
The template set you're using is not for Movable Type. I see you've covered up some of the features with images, but they're not properly covered, and the body is not in sync with the header. I think you'll find your problems are to do with the CSS. You need an overflow on the content to get it to continue on down the page. Good luck!
Now I just need some content!
Good Time
Good Time
Thanks
A few months ago I tried my hands at movable..butt......arghhhhh.
I am sticking with WP....
no problem